Gyokumen Koushu
Gyokumen Koushu ''Princess Gyokumen (玉面公主)'' is one of the main enemies of the Sanzo party and instigator behind the Minus Wave affecting Shangrila's demon population. She wants to obtain the Heaven and Earth Scripture to revive her lover Gyumaoh. Personality Underneath an exotically beautiful appearance is a highly manipulative, vain, cold-hearted, and cunning demon. She thinks highly of only herself and lover while viewing everyone else around her as dirt or means to an end. If she appears to hold some sort of regard for someone else, it is more than likely in order to further her plans in reviving Gyumaoh. It can also be infered that Gyokumen is a jealous and possessive woman, seeing as how she wants Gyumaoh as her legal husband once he is revived and left Rasetsunyo in her sealed, petrified state. She often shows her ruthless and sarcastic side with her step-son, Kougaiji. She taunts him constantly and reminds him of his failed attempts at thwarting the Sanzo party. Appearance Lady Gyokumen appears as a beautiful young woman, but is considerably older. She doesn't even resemble her daughter, Lirin. She is shown to have a purple robe and a red obi that allows her cleavage to be plainly seen. She has long lilac hair that is mostly pulled back by a hair accessory, howeverher bangs part on each side, nearly reaching past her waist and tied right on the ends with matching hair ornaments. She always have a polish on her long nails to and always wears makeup. She has red eyes and has a mole below on her right eye. Her demonic birthmark is on her stomach. Her most iconic image comes from Gensomaden, where her hair is teal and her eyes violet. Her hair is significantly shorter, reaching only her chest. Background Proclaiming herself as Lady Gyokumen and sometimes known as Princess Jade, she is a youkai mistress to Gyumaoh and is very determined to revive and marry him. Lady Gyokumen's relationship with Gyumaoh has born her a daughter called Lirin before Gensomaden Saiyuki. In later stories of Saiyuki, it is shown that Lady Gyokumen doesn't seem to have the time and care to give motherly love to her daughter and only sees her daughter as a tool to serve her when she needs it. In''' Saiyuki''' Lady Gyokumen is believed to be responsible for breaking the 500-year-old seal of Houtou castle, freeing almost all of its occupants except Rasetsunyo and took steps to revive her lover, Gyumaoh. To revive him, Lady Gyokumen has employed help from a twisted bioengineer Dr Ni Jianyi that enables her to use a forbidden mixture of youkai magic and human science. Gyumaoh's body is now stored in a special incubation chamber, and requires the Heavily and Earth Scriptures that comprises 5 sutras to complete the revival process. From the anime Saiyuki-Reload, it is believed that Lady Gyokumen has two sutras in her hand. Since she was determined to have obtained the sutras, she and Ni Jianyi release the Minus wave to whole of Shangri-La, brainwashing the youkai, making them go berserk on their human companions and enabling youkai to do her bidding (including obtaining the sutras) in the name of Gyumaoh's revival. She even manipulates Gyumaoh's son Kougaiji to obtain the sutra for her from Genjo Sanzo by promising him, Ratsetsunyo's revival from the stone curse. Whether she will keep her promise remains to be seen. She also invested her resources in many of Dr. Ni's inventions, a product of youkai magic and human science that were used to track down the sutras and on various occasions used to destroy Genjo Sanzo and Sanzo ikkou, which of course the four fighters have survived and escaped many times in the past. Relationships Dr. Ni - In the manga, it was shown that she was obviously in some sort of sexual relationship with Dr. Ni, while the anime has just hinted at it. Lirin - Gyokumen is Lirin's mother. Both in the anime and manga, it is shown that Gyokumen has no real interest in raising or caring for her daughter. She leaves Lirin in the care of Kougaiji and his followers. Lirin openly acknowledges that her mother doesn't seem to care for her, and even shows verbal hatred toward her (in the anime). However in the manga, it seems that Lirin still yearned to gain her mother's affection as she envied the relationship Kougaiji had with his own mother. Gyoukumen was most likely aware and used this to her advantage when she attempted to use her daughter in the revival process, proving how little her daughter actually means to her. Kougaiji - Gyokumen once told the prince that he resembled his father - her lover - only to be sickened by how he managed to speak like his mother, whom she despises immensely due to her relationship with Gyumaoh. Kougaiji and Gyokumen care little, if at all for one another. She takes advantage of his otherwise kind nature and mocks him constantly for his inability to defeat the Sanzo party. Gyokumen is sarcastic toward Kougaiji as well and likes to make the prince uncomfortable. Up until recently, Kougaiji only listened and obeyed her because she promised his mother's revival in exchange for his compliance. She often sent him to retrieve Sanzo's scripture and it's apparent she only sees him as a means to an end, as proven by her acceptance of Nii's project to turn Kougaiji into a mindless slave. Professor Hwang -'' '' Trivia * Gyokumen is based off of Journey to the West's Princess Jade Face, the concubine of the Bull King. * Fittingly, her name means 'jade-faced' or 'jewel-faced princess'. Gallery Gyokumen Koushu 002.jpg|Saiyuki Premium OVA Gyokumen Koushu 003.jpg Gyokumen Koushu Professor Hwang 001.jpg Gyokumen gal001.jpg Gyokumen gal002.jpg Gyokumen gal003.jpg Gyokumen gal004.jpg Gyokumen gal005.png References Category:Characters Category:Villains